Chapter 32: Companions
They walked for ages without speaking another word to Iliana. She could hear the two several feet behind her whispering to themselves. The brahmin's hooves carelessly pounded the dusty concrete beside her, her only friend on this trek. She could feel their uncertain and uneasy eyes on her back as they traveled the disintegrating highway.
Iliana knew she would have to make herself a valuable asset and quickly to this little rag-tag caravan. She had heard of the large slaver trade that was common place in the Capital. The last thing she needed was to have a collar around her neck. Escaping one captor was enough during this trip, she certainly wouldn't have it happen again, and chances were she wouldn't be lucky enough to escape a second time.
She stood on an overpass outside the city, gazing over the grass covered roadways and the ruins of a once sprawling metropolis, a great and powerful city. Navigating the Capitol seemed an insurmountable task from where she stood at that moment. These streets were winding and treacherous before the bomb, and now she was certain the way ahead would be precarious, to say the least.
"Is this your first time seeing the Capitol Wastes?" The guard asked, her voice a little softer, some layer of hidden understanding buried there. The pair settled in behind her, all pausing to observe the trail ahead, lost in their own thoughts.
"I guess you could say that." Iliana mumbled, awestruck and distant. She had been here numerous times as a student, but now she could barely remember that busload of wide eyed college freshmen on a pilgrimage to see the origin of American law. She wondered what had happened to the places she had toured, the Capitol Building, Congressional Library, the White House.
"It really is impressive. The whole country was run out of here back in the day. Hardly seems possible now. The United States of America they called it." The guard scoffed at the thought.
"Now the only thing United about all this, is that this whole damn place is a disaster." The trader added, adjusting his pack uncomfortably before the group continued onward.
"I've seen so much of these Wastes and this is by far the most impressive. Where are you from exactly?" The guard said, keeping the distance between them closer than it had been on the road outside the city.
Iliana panicked slightly, she hadn't prepared much of cover story to satiate the curiosity of her traveling partners, between her sleeplessness, and her hunger, and the constant churning in her stomach she hadn't put that much thought to it. She was sure she couldn't give an honest answer though.
"Just a small farming settlement a few hours West from here." She said softly, hoping they would drop the round of questioning.
"You don't look like any farmer I've ever seen. Armed to the teeth like you are." The trader stated speculatively. "What'd you farm over there any way?"
shit, shit, shit, she thought, panic over taking her for a moment.
"Um, livestock." Was all she managed to mutter after a moment, staring at the brahimin that walked beside them.
"Helluva brahmin I'd say." He chuckled to himself.
"I don't buy it." The guard said sharply. Iliana could see her trying to work through the pieces of the puzzle and she had to try to put a stop to it.
"Well, what about you? I've never seen a caravan guard with a Pip-Boy."
"You're really not from this region, huh?" the trader chuckled, "well, this is our very own Wasteland Savior, Champion of Justice, Earthly Angel, that crazy kid from Vault 101."
"Stop," she rolled her eyes, "It's not really like that."
"Sure it is, she is solely responsible for bringing fresh water to these wastes."
"Not solely. Not by a long shot." something sat behind her eyes, some kind of hurt that Iliana knew all too well. It was the look of loss. She had seen it in her own eyes anytime she looked in a mirror.
"I've heard those vaults aren't all their cracked up to be." Iliana broke the silence, trying to push them both away from their careful examination of the dead.
"They're not. If they weren't set up as twisted experiments they quickly became them by other means. Power in those closed off spaces does terrible things to people."
Iliana couldn't have agreed more. The power the guard spoke of was the same power that got Preston killed. That blind leadership ruled by small mindedness had cost her so much. It was troubling to know that it was an epidemic more than an isolated incident. But this just proved to her that if she didn't handle her opposition now they would always find another way.
The sun had gone down on the city and the troupe had taken refuge in the empty plaza of Galaxy News Radio next to various other travelers and traders. The courtyard of GNR had become a travel plaza of sorts. Armed guards, courtesy of the Brotherhood of Steel, a water depot, facilities, and a food vendor who was stocked with Dandy Boys, Cram, and other made-to-last fare. Iliana knew that Cram was hardly food back in the day, but surviving a nuclear apocalypse was so much more than she was comfortable thinking about. For the first time in her journey she was feed, some what clean, and looking forward to a decent night's sleep.
"She'll be out in a bit, visiting an old friend." The trader said as he settled down onto his worn sleeping bag. Iliana nodded and did the same, her joints easing down, finding comfort that had eluded them for quite some time.
"She's not as tough as she tries to make everyone think she is. I suspect you know a thing or two about that. You Wasteland Wonder Women are something else, I don't know how you do it. Listen, kid, you're ok by me. You've proved yourself on the road today. My name is Hank, she goes by Allie, its short for Albertine but don't tell her I told you that." He chuckled and pulled his hat over his eyes, ready to drift off to sleep.
Iliana cozied down into her bed roll, her mind was still foggy, her body still hummed like it was moving. She had spent so long on the road without really stopping, she wasn't even sure she would be able to find enough calm to drift away to sleep.
She draped her arm over her eyes, blocking the dancing light of a nearby fire, the pressure relieving the tension that sat behind her lids. She sighed, a sense of relief filling her to the brim. She was safer than she had been in weeks, and she was closer to her target. This might actually work after all. The idle quieting chatter in the plaza comforted her, as she lay there. It was strange how detached you could become when traveling alone the way she had, she mused.
"Get up. We need to talk." Allie whispered in Iliana's ear, agitation in her voice. The guard pulled Iliana roughly to her feet and dragged her into the GNR building.
"I need some goddamn answers. And I need them now." She hissed through her teeth.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Iliana mumbled, still trying to figure out what exactly what was going on.
"I need you to stop with the I'm and innocent farmer girl bullshit. I wasn't born yesterday." Allie was seething, this woman had a deadly precision that the average settler would never have.
"I-I-uh can't. Right now." Iliana scanned the room, noticing the Brotherhood soldiers still within earshot. She couldn't risk being exposed like this.
Allie picked up on her message and grabbed her hand, pulling her up a flight of stairs and into a dilapidated office. There was one person in this building that she trusted implicitly, and he certainly wouldn't mind their interruption. Allie tossed the girl onto a large set of stairs and crossed her arms impatiently, an eyebrow raised.
Iliana huffed,"It's complicated."
"Complicated? You don't know complicated, try me."Allie was quickly losing her nerve with Iliana.
Iliana didn't know if she would be able to trust her, but it seemed like she was rapidly running out of options. She could run for the door and take off, but she was pretty sure the Knights on the floor below wouldn't just let her flee the building. She thought quickly, remembering all the people back in the Commonwealth that had helped her along the way. She thought of Danse, Preston and Sturges, Hancock, Valentine, Arthur and so many others. Her unlikely companions in a world that was hellbent on destroying her. Companions she had never expected, but companions that had done so much to save her from herself.
Iliana took a deep breath and began to explain, hoping to gain another companion in this journey.